What is most horrifying about this is that the feelings are so prevalent the parent felt it was ok to say she didn't want her kid to see another person. Get that. My kid should be protected from the sight of this person. Should this woman go to the store or hide in a room so small children aren't fightened? Should she carry a bell that said "unclean", "unclean" so people could usher small children away.

This thinking is pravalent and it often comes from a feeling that my child is more important than anyother child or person. I don't want my child to ever experience sadness or pain or fear so I will go so far as to isolate others to achieve that end.

Two years ago my niece was in preschool with a child whose father was dying of cancer. The family was very stressed and needed families from the school to take the child home after school for a few hours to play with the other children from the preschool. This allowed the child a break from the situation and the parents some time to visit the father in the hospital alone.

Very few families were willing to do this. (I ended up taking her almost every day which was fine, but the reason made me angry.) They were afraid that she would mention her father's death and they didn't want their child to know that a parent could die. They were afraid it would scare them. Perhaps they feared the idea themselves. The result of giving in to their fears was social isolation for a grieving child. Cruelty created by the attitude that imagined happiness for my child must come before all other children.

This attitude creates social isolation for the disabled which is worse than the disability and it makes me mad.